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That day the King sat joyfully on his royal seat at the repast, next his wife Gisela, and Ingo on the other side. "Today I rejoice in the good fortune of the chase; I rejoice in my power and the gold treasures that you all see before your eyes; and I drink to the health of the Hero Ingo, because he was a good comrade in fight with the mountain ox. Rejoice, all of you, today with me, when you see the gold and silver cups which are placed before your eyes, to my honor and yours. Thou, Ingo, hast visited many courts of powerful rulers: tell me, Hero, whether thou hast seen better vessels from any of their treasure-houses."

"Gladly do I praise thy wealth, oh King; for when the treasure-house is filled, we think the ruler governs in security, feared by hostile neighbors and bad men among the people. There are two virtues which I have always heard extolled in a powerful sovereign: understanding to collect treasure at the right time, and to distribute it at the right time to his faithful servants, that they may follow him in danger."

These words were quite in accordance with the opinion of the heroes who sat at the King's table, and they nodded, and murmured approbation.

"The Allemanns also were a wealthy people till Cæsar devastated their land," continued Ingo; "but I think they will regain much, for they are active after booty, and understand how to deal with traders. Therefore they live more like Romans than other country people; the peasants also dwell in stone houses; the women embroider colored pictures on their dresses; and round them hang sweet grapes in vine arbors."

"Dost thou know the Roman women also?" asked the Queen; "the King's men relate many wonderful things of their beauty, although they have brown skins and black hair."

"They are nimble in speech, and in the movements of their limbs, and the greeting of their eyes is pleasing; only I heard that they could not boast of the propriety of their conduct," replied Ingo.

"Hast thou been in Roman land?" asked the King, inquisitively.

"It is two years," said Ingo, "since I rode as companion of the young King Athanarich peacefully into the walls of the great imperial city of Treves. I saw high arches and stone walls, as if erected by giants. The people laughed in crowded throngs in the streets; but the warriors who stood there at the gates, with Roman tokens on their shields, have our eyes, and speak our language, although they wrongly boast of being Romans."

"The strangers give us their wisdom, they sell us gold and wine, but we lend them power of limb; I approve of the exchange," replied Hadubald, to whom it was not pleasant to hear the Roman service despised.

"But I, oh King," began Berthar, "have little respect for that wisdom of the Romans. I also was formerly in the great stone castle which the Romans have built; first, when my lord Ingo sent me southward over the Danube to Augsburg, where now the Suabians have established their home. I rode in with difficulty over the broken city walls; there I saw much folly which is annoying even to a wandering man. The Roman houses stood as thickly packed as a flock of sheep in a thunderstorm. I saw none where there was room for a court, nay, even for a dunghill. I asked my host, and he said, 'They squat, if needs be, shamelessly, like little dogs in the street.' I lay in such a stone hole; the walls and the floors were smooth, and shone with many bright colors. The trusty Suabians had arranged a straw roof as a covering. I assure you it was uncomfortably between the stone walls during the night; and I was glad in the morning when the swallows sang in the straw. It had rained in the night, and in a puddle on the floor I saw by the morning light two ducks, not real, but as if painted on the stone of the floor. I went up to it, stuck my axe into the stone floor, and found a ludicrous work put together of many little stones; every stone was cemented to the floor, and the surface was polished as fine as a stone ax. From such colored stones were the birds made which we know as ducks; and it was a work over which many men must have been occupied many days, only to polish the hard stone. That appeared to me quite foolish, and my Suabian thought so also."

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